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Can Solar Help Offset the AI’s Energy Demand? by Greg Zimmerman

William Attardi on April 30, 2025

Demand from data centers is expected to more than triple by 2028, according to the Department of Energy. This is largely due to the explosion of Artificial Intelligence, and its intense demand for electricity.  Meta, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are just a few of the big tech companies investing billions in solar technology. Two of the main reasons for the investment in solar is that the solar development timeline is much shorter than for other sources electricity. At 1.4 years, solar is the shortest timeline to develop an 800-megawatt solar plant. That’s compared to 15 years for a nuclear power and 6.7 years for a coal-fired power plant.  Also, solar is much less expensive, is easily scalable, and pays back much quicker than other sources of electricity.   Can Solar Help Offset the AI’s Energy Demand?  – Facility Management Green Quick Read

Cost of Electricity Expected to Skyrocket Due to Data Center Demand by Greg Zimmerman

William Attardi on December 31, 2024

The explosion of artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency mining, and other computing-intensive processes have fueled a building boom for data centers. But they’ve also fueled a massive spike in energy demand, which is in turn leading to higher energy prices for many facilities across the country.  One study estimates data centers could be responsible for a 70 percent increase in the cost of electricity over the next 10 years. One hyperscale data center, as a point of reference, can use as much electricity as 40,000 homes.  Cost of Electricity Expected to Skyrocket Due to Data Center Demand – Facility Management Data Centers Quick Read

Telling Time – 12-hour time is a very ancient system that traces back to the Mesopotamian empires. They had a cultural fixation with the number 12, used a base-12 numerical system, and divided up most things into 12ths whenever possible – including day and night. The 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night system spread throughout Europe and the Middle East and has defied multiple attempts to change it over the centuries. Also, for anyone curious as to why there was such a love of the number 12, it was because that was how they counted on their hand. Look at your hand. Notice how each of your fingers minus your thumb has three easily identifiable parts to it. They used to count by using their thumb to count each part of the finger, much in the same way we count to 10 using our fingers today. So, 12 was the max you could count on one hand.